Starting Tau Pt1

This is for any newer players that stumble upon the blog, fresh from training as Shas'saals.
First off, get a codex. Don't pirate it, then you are a douchebag. Buy the 'dex, and if you don't have a friend who already plays, buy a core rulebook. For actual collecting, you should start off with the Tau Battleforce.
This will give you a full squad of Fire Warriors (12), meaning you can either treat them as a single unit or split them into two minimum-sized squads, depending on your plans. This is great, as at least two troop choices are needed in standard games, and for Tau, one of them must be a group of Fire Warriors. You also get a Devilfish, which is an excellent, though expensive pointswise.
You also get 12 Kroot, just a little more than a full squad. These guys are either hated or loved by Tau players, depending on playstyle. I will post some theory on them at a later date. Suffice to say that they are point for point a better offensive unit the Fire Warriors, but lack the ability to bring transports, and lack any armor, making them easy to kill if not hidden in cover.
You get three Stealth Suits, who by themselves, are near pointless. Many players avoid Stealth Suits, as they suffer from being worse in terms of firepower to points conversion than Crisis Suits. They do however, gain in terms of maneuverability; they have additional deployment options that Crisis Suits don't have.
Speaking of the Suits, you get one of those. This Suit will act as your Commander early in your career, as you MUST have at least one Shas'el or Shas'o to lead your army.

A second Battleforce will give you more than enough models to make a decent army. Then you need to branch out into Heavy Support. Hammerheads or Broadsides, or both. Skyrays are unorthodox but entirely usable. Sniper Drone Teams are great units, but they compete with things that are much better uses of the slot.

Next pos, I'll review how to build a viable army using one Battleforce, then using two.